Much like the Edmund Fitzgerald, the gales of November came early to the CC50 with the Zach Top-alypse (there are lots more where that came from) howling into first place. After brewing all year, Top climbing into the top 5 felt inevitable, but leapfrogging ZB, Wallen, CoJo, and Combs in one month was a dramatic way to go about it. Sitting just under 3 points above second place Riley Green, Top now holds the distinction of holding the largest lead of any frontrunner in the history of the CC50. Further down the rankings, Zach Bryan slides in 6th place, with Stapleton and Meg Moroney breathing down his neck. Ella Langley hit the top 10 for the first time, just months after making her CC50 debut, while radio and streaming darling Jordan Davis took his first demotion down to the wildcards. November’s total numbers are listed below:
Biggest Risers and Fallers
November was a fantastic month for 2024’s breakout artists on the CC50, with Top and Langley seemingly continuing to rule the roost in this section every month. Recent wildcards Sam Barber and Dylan Gossett also made substantial gains. Langley’s deluxe album is still hungover, and Barber’s Restless Mind will give audiences more music to weigh in on in December’s CC50 voting. On the other end of the spectrum, Top has impressively accomplished this surge in popularity on the back of his April album Cold Beer & Country Music, with only one single released in the last 7 months. To be fair, CC50 results tend to lag actual audience perception, but it’s still a remarkable surge to achieve without new music or any headline (good or bad) publicity, and it will be interesting to see whether Top’s new music can live up to the expectations when it finally comes.
Last month, we speculated about whether the slipping of two of 2024’s earlier CC50 darlings, Post Malone and George Strait, was an album fatigue trend or one of them, and this month gave us an answer, albeit two different ones. Strait stopped the bleeding, actually picking up a little ground and remaining one of the only artists with over 50% Interest. Unfortunately for Post Malone, the opposite was the case, as he not only reappeared in this section but headlined it with a six-point dropoff in Interest. F-1 Trillion is still big on radio and will remain one of the year’s biggest stories, but listeners are turning more and more to other artists as fatigue sets in. Many other big names struggled in November, a slow year for the top artists’ slogs.
Quick Hits
- It’s far too early to postmortem Zach Bryan; after all, he still is #6, with 65% of listeners interested in his new music. But doesn’t it feel like something is up here? Over the last 6 months, he’s shed almost 15 points and gone from unquestioned #1 to faltering top dog to outside the top 5 looking in. The Great American Bar Scene never connected with audiences like his previous albums, and some outside dramas are gradually shifting public Interest. It will be interesting to see what direction he goes with his music career from here.
- The Coastal Plain continues to revitalize Muscadine Bloodline’s CC50 standing. Last month, we pointed out their remarkable bounce back from the brink of demotion at #45, and that continued this month. They’ve now risen 10 points and 12 places since September. This is a great story for a duo that has been making great music with not much recognition previously.
- Overall listener interest held steady in November, with an Interest percentage of 36.5% (indicating that the average artist on the CC50 has 3.6 in 10 audience members interested in their releases), up from last month’s mark of 36.4% and second consecutive month with an increase. The overall vote count was 229,780.
Wildcard Watch
2024 has been the year of the wildcards; we’ve seen everyone from Strait to Top to Langley forge their way up from the CC Wildcards voting all the way to the peak of the CC50. As with any “minor league” system, ten artists are scrapping away at the bottom for every success story, just trying to get their shot at the CC50. This past month’s wildcard batch consisted of veterans of the promotion and demotion process, and nothing was different this time. Songs About You and About a Woman gave Ole 60 and Thomas Rhett, respectively, enough of a lift to fall into the low 20% Interest range and earn another month in the CC50, while Lambert and Rice head back to the wildcard pool.
In December, Keith Urban (on the back of a surprisingly strong fall album, HIGH) is joined by veterans Old Dominion and Justin Moore and new faces Braxton Keith and Hudson Westbrook in getting the call-up. Braxton and Hudson are particularly exciting wildcards with matching 47% interest marks in the wildcard voting, which usually translates into success in the CC50.
Well, it was fun riding with y’all, as always; working on this article helped pass a few hours of the long haul up to PA for Thanksgiving weekend, and maybe it will give a little entertainment for y’all in the breaks between food and football this week. Rivalry weekend in college football has rarely felt this high stakes for many teams. I was skeptical of the 12-team playoff, but credit, where it’s due, has made many more games matter this year. Hope all y’all have a blessed Thanksgiving and safe travels!
